Normid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Normid was a chain of superstores, located in northern England. It was owned by the United Norwest Co-operative Society. It is thought that Normid was so named because it was a shortened form of 'north and midlands' It would appear that little is known about Normid today and virtually no information can be found about it, which is strange, given the large size of the hypermarkets and large product range. Stores were trading from the mid 80's until the late 90's, by which time the Co-op wanted to concentrate on their convenience stores; many of the large, under-performing superstores were closed down.
Although Normid sold mostly food, electrical items could also be bought and non-food retailers, like Dolphin bathrooms, had concessions.
The best remembered store was at Burnden Park, Bolton, home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club. It closed in 1997, shortly after Bolton's move to the Reebok Stadium. Ironically, one of the main reasons BWFC moved was because Normid prevented redevelopment. When it opened in 1985, it was controversial, as many people thought Normid's ugly building ruined the site. Consequently, Burnden Park became something of a joke, with fans complaining that 'the pitch had a supermarket for a wall'. When it eventually closed, after years of little trade, the site suffered. The building was derelict for several years and was vandalised before it was finally demolished in 2001. The original site was replaced with an ASDA supermarket (formally Big W) in 2005 and Normid relocated to Westhoughton, but under a different name.
The Normid at Chorley was only open for 3 years in the early 90's before its closure. The Co-op superstore at Talke near Stoke, is still sometimes called Normid, which was the name of the original store there before redevelopment.
Normid were sponsors of Bolton Wanderers from 1986 until 1990.
Other stores existed in Blackpool, Crewe, Wigan, Widnes, Talke (near Kidsgrove), Chorley, Hindley and Blackburn. Normid 1 was based in Crewe, Normid 2 Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Normid 3 was Milehouse, Newcastle-under-Lyme. Normid 4 Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, Normid 5 was the Hypermarket at Talke. Normid 6 and 7 were Macclesfield and Longton.
